Morocco is raising funds to build new data centres across the country in a bid to position itself as a regional storage hub for sub-Saharan Africa.
The move would strengthen its digital sovereignty, Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni, Minister of Digital Transition and Administration Reform, told The National.
Since the enactment of a 2021 law requiring that all sensitive data must be hosted on national soil, Morocco has emerged as a regional leader in data infrastructure. Now, it is seeking to expand its footprint through new investment and partnerships.
“AI is really about technological, political and geopolitical sovereignty," the minister said, speaking on the fringes of a conference on female participation in the digital economy at the Arab World Institute in Paris.
Integrating AI in public administration is a priority for Ms El Fallah Seghrouchni. As part of a newly launched African-Arab digital transformation hub with the UN, she aims to digitise administrative paperwork and enhance government services using AI.
New data centres
A flagship project is planned for Dakhla, in the Sahara region, where Morocco's government aims to build a data centre, powered by renewable energy, with a capacity of 500 megawatts by 2030. The plant would not only stock Moroccan data but would also serve countries in the Sahel region, including Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Ivory Coast.
"There are underwater cables running along the Moroccan coast from Europe to Africa that will allow us to export data to the Sahel," Ms El Fallah Seghrouchni said.
Morocco is currently raising funds for the project, estimated to cost around $54 million to build and $5.4 million to run annually. It will be partially funded by the government, the Mohammed VI investment fund and the state-owned Caisse de depots et de gestion, a deposit and management fund.
In the capital Rabat, the government plans to build a smaller data centre of 50MW in the Technopolis industrial zone. "Most of Morocco's administration is in Rabat. There will be a data centre as close as possible to the administration," Ms El Fallah Seghrouchni said.
Accessible AI
She emphasised the need for AI services to be as inclusive as possible, referring to prototypes developed under her supervision as professor at Sorbonne University in France and the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic in Morocco.
In regions where illiteracy is high, AI can become a tool to help users accomplish tasks with voice commands by, for example, scanning documents to explain their content, she said.
"AI and generative AI can make digital services much more accessible to a segment of the population that does not normally have access to these services," Ms El Fallah Seghrouchni said.
The minister stressed the need for stronger co-operation between digital companies in African and Arab states. That is one of the aims of a recent project launched by Morocco and the UN in September, during the UN General Assembly in New York.
Named Digital for Sustainable Development (D4SD), it has a budget of $38 million over three years, including $8 million from Morocco and a $1 million contribution from the UN.
Ms El Fallah Seghrouchni said she will priorities projects such as digitising handwritten documents in African countries. Announcements on projects are expected next year.
